The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate said its National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) recently put commercially available counter-UAS systems through a week-long operational assessment with first responders, according to DHS statements reported by DRONELIFE and HSToday on October 1 and October 2, 2026.
Operational Testing Over Lab Conditions
NUSTL brought state and local law enforcement and other first responders to a federal test facility to evaluate counter-drone mitigation equipment against multiple drone types under conditions intended to resemble real deployments rather than controlled laboratory settings. NUSTL Director Alice Hong said the lab is “leading this C-UAS assessment, specifically looking at the mitigation aspects of these products,” adding that if first responders are going to deploy a technology, the lab tests it under operational conditions to confirm it is suitable for their use.
Tied to Upcoming Grant Funding
The exercise is meant to give agencies hands-on exposure to fielded systems before committing to purchases, as jurisdictions prepare for an anticipated second round of federal counter-UAS grant funding tied to SAFER SKIES Act provisions in the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which expanded counter-UAS legal authorities to qualified state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies.
DHS has not publicly named the vendors or specific systems evaluated, and no scoring or pass/fail results from the assessment have been released. The agency has run comparable test events previously, including work tied to World Cup host-city security planning earlier in 2026. More counter-drone developments are tracked in the SectechMedia Technology News archive.